Unfamiliar Territory
by SaphireWhiteWolf
Summary: Naruto's parents live on either side of the USA, who decide to send him to live with his Great Aunt and Uncle in Montana. There, he discovers friendship and, while dealing with uncertain sexuality, love from an unlikely source. High school fic ItaNaru
1. How Big is This Place?

**Alright, I know I should be working on MoE, but this idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I finally put it up, and put thought into it. So I know where I'm going with this, how I'm going to get there is the bigger question.**

**But I hope all of you will enjoy this, because I'm probably making those of you who are over here from MoE who are awaiting the next chapter very angry with me. Hopefully, you wont be too mad at me and I'll add some nice fluffy ItaNaru in MoE if you are nice or if you flame.  
Speaking of flames, I welcome all of you flamers looking for nothing to do, to sit down, take a load off and do what you do best, because I need a bit of a laugh right now.

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Naruto looked around the small airport. Ruddy bronze and brown statues of bears, elk and a mountain lion were clustered by the staircase leading to security and similar statues, in the form of geese, were hanging from the ceiling.

The lion looked as though it were ready to pounce, if one looked in the direction it's gaze was sat upon, it could be seen looking at a bear statue that was across the slightly narrow hallway; the bear merely gazed back, the ghost of a snarl on it's face; the elk was standing majestically above the mountain cat, all twelve points of his antlers looking sharp and deadly. The geese only flew in place, oblivious to the people walking under them.

He was dressed in black and orange shorts, a black tee shirt with a swirl in the center and his trademark orange jacket with black sleeves.

_'This has got to be the smallest airport I've ever seen.'_ he thought as he grabbed his suitcase from the first of two revolving belts. He waited a few more minutes and a dog carrier came around. He snatched the large cage before he looked inside.

An unusually large for it's size Dhole; a wild dog that descended from Asia,(he had found it when it was injured and had nursed it back to health when he was only a boy) was sitting inside the cage looking at Naruto with strange red tinted amber eyes. It gave a mewl before it seemed to glare at him.

"Well, sorry, Kyuubi. It's not my fault that you couldn't come on the plane with me." the blond said glaring back at the dog.

"Hey! Naruto!" a voice called behind him.

He turned and saw the source of the voice, a white haired old man who was standing next to a busty, blond, old women.

"Get your ass over here, brat! I'm not going to stand here for another minute!" the woman yelled.

_'Same old, baa-chan.' _He thought to himself. He walked over to his great aunt and uncle and was smothered in one large bear hug.

"So, how have you been, Naruto?" the old man known as Jiraiya asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Eh, same old, same old. Moving back and forth across the country and Canada. Nothing new." he grinned.

"Ah. So how's your dad doing?"

Naruto gave a slight pause at this question. "He's fine. Just caught up in the business is all."

Minato Namikaze was the owner of a small, family owned business. He was also Naruto's father and he happened to live in Boston, Massachusetts. Naruto wasn't sure what his father did; read as no idea; but whatever it was, he was going at it every single day from five am till midnight every day, leaving no time for the two to do things together. But Naruto was used to that.

"Okay. Well, let's go back to the house, shall we?" the woman known as Tsunade said, walking toward the doors.

Once he was outside, Naruto realized how small the place actually was when he didn't see a parking garage.

"Is this the only airport around here?" he asked.

"There's one in Billings, but other then the ones for the farmer's, pretty much!" Jiraiya said with a grin.

Naruto was in disbelief. "You're kidding me, right? How small is this place?"

"Right now we're closer to Belgrade, but Bozeman is bigger. However, we live in Livingston which is smaller then Belgrade." Tsunade said. "To put it bluntly, it's tiny."

They arrived at their car; a black Ford Tonka; and Naruto put his stuff in the back. He then opened kyuubi's cage and tied the dog to the cage, preventing him from jumping out of the vehicle.

Jiraiya started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot after paying for the parking.

Naruto saw the mountains in the distance looming over the valley like a protective wall. Despite the fact that it was August, there was still snow on them; like a white cloak patterned with spots of deep blue.

_'It's amazing how nature defies the seasons.'_ Naruto thought looking out the window of the back seat.

They drove along before they came into a larger town.

"Welcome to Bozeman! The largest town that doesn't take more then an hour to drive to within two hundred miles!" Jiraiya proclaimed in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"While we're here, why don't we stop and get the brat back there his school supplies?" Tsunade said, jabbing a thumb at Naruto.

"Not a bad idea. If we get them now, then you wont have to deal with the last minute shoppers." Jiraiya mused. "To Target, then after, Walmart!"

_'How backwater is this place?'_ Naruto thought with a slightly panicked look.

When the pulled into the parking lot of Target, Naruto noticed something. And by noticed something, he meant some_bodies._

Four girls; one a brunet with her hair up in two buns, a blond with her hair pulled back into a high pony, a blue-black haired girl said hair cropped short, and finally a pink haired girl whose hair was down, (_obviously dyed_, he thought absently); were walking toward the entrance of the store, laughter flowing from them.

The all removed themselves from their vehicle and walked to the entrance of the store, following the group of giggling girls. Naruto managed to pick up a bit of information.

"Did you hear what happened to that one girl?" The blond asked.

"You mean, Larka-san?" the short haired girl responded quietly. "Yeah. It's kinda tragic."

"What happened to her, Hinata?" pinky, as Naruto had now dubbed her, wondered.

"Turned out that when she was in this freak car accident," the blond informed the group when Hinata got a shy look on her face. "she got another personality. She's still got the same likes and dislikes, but now she's way more vocal about the things she doesn't like and somehow has a photographic memory."

"How the hell is that possible, Ino?" the brunet asked. When all she got was a shrug, she asked pinky. "Do you know, Sakura? I know you want to work in the medical field once you get out of this backwater town."

Sakura, as she was now known, thought 'this over. "She could have possibly damaged her brain in ways that could cause something like that, but other then that, I have no idea. Sorry, Tenten."

Naruto then turned a different direction then they were going. He saw that they never noticed him, which didn't really surprise him as he was standing behind them the entire time they were walking.

The trio had walked right down to the office supplies. Tsunade had given Naruto the list that she conveniently had in her pocket, so she could go look for what she wanted.

'_Student's should have a three ring binder for each class that requires one. At a minimum, a notebook should be kept for note taking__, when required. Pencils, pens, paper and supplies for an art class, if the student is taking one, are necessary.' _Naruto read. _'Well that seems easy enough.'_

He was reaching for a spiral notebook when he realized something, he didn't know how many classes he had. Turning to go down the aisle that he saw his uncle go down, he saw someone.

Black hair set in a low pony flowed down his back, the blue hoodie he was wearing was run through with streaks of white and black in a seemingly random fashion, pants that were slightly baggy in a shade of deep blue covered long legs and gray eyes that were a shade very close to back peered at the book in his hands, moving across the page, made up the older teens' overall appearance.

_'He's hot...'_ Naruto thought absently.

The look on his face was one that could have made a few people around him laugh hysterically.

_'What the hell was that?!'_ Naruto screeched inside his head. He looked back at the older teen with a slight blush on his face before it disappeared.

The teen was gone.

"Naruto?" Jiraiya asked. "Come on! We need to get your crap before Tsunade comes back!"

"Okay. Coming!" Naruto replied and ran back to get all of the things he needed.

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**So to all of you who would like to guess as to who that person in the blue hoodie was, you will get a large piece of chocolate, or if you are alergic/hate it, you get a cookie of your choice!**


	2. People aren't nice

Naruto looked out the window of the truck he was in at the scenery.

Mountains that were the deep blue of granite were farther in the distance had rolling hills that were many shades of green, brown and tan; tan prevailing over the other two colors; and had small spots of sagebrush dotting them.

The road he was on wound gently with the land, but it still cut through a few small hills along the way. They passed by a large ranch that had a deep red colored barn, with the paint fading and chipping. On one side of the field, was a small pond that had a stream leading down the hill. Resting by the pond, were buffalo, some large and some small.

_'Buffalo? What are they doing there?'_ He thought, before voicing his question.

"Oh that?" Jiraiya said. "That's the buffalo ranch that this old couple owns. And before you ask, yes it is legal."

"Huh." he said before returning to his 'sight seeing'.

The land stayed much the same until they got closer to the town. There, it leveled out a bit, before it showed that it was a valley. At one end of it, there were two large hills that could be considered small mountains, with a slit between them.

"That is the way to Paradise Valley and Pine Creek." Tsunade said pointing to the hills. "It's very beautiful, and to live out there, you have to have money and lots of it. Or live in the K.O.A campground. That's also where the guy who wrote that book about dragons- Eragog? Something like that..-lives."

"Christopher Paolini lives out there?" Naruto asked, knowing who the author was since he was a big fan of the books. "Awesome!"

They turned away from the Valley and they drove to the middle of town. They turned at the Dairy Queen and parked the truck in the back.

"C'mon kid, let's get some food." Jiraiya said as he walked inside.

Naruto followed and felt relief at the cool air of the restaurant, slash ice cream parlor and looked over the menu. He decided on a regular old cheese burger and fries, with a large chocolate extreme blizzard.

He was looking around the only slightly crowed building, when he heard the door open and loud laughter follow the chime. He didn't notice that Jiraiya and Tsunade had moved to a table that was out of his sight.

Four people walked in, three of them being male and the first one in female. She had her hair up in four blond pigtails, teal colored eyes, had on a tan and purple jacket with a purple sash around gray skinny jeans, acting as a belt. On her feet were tan flip-flops that looked torn and like they should be thrown out. She had a large grin on her face and was one of the ones still chuckling. She looked older then two of the boys, and probably was two years older then Naruto himself.

The first male had striking red hair in spikes, like his own but looser, deep black rings around his eyes that were a sea foam green, a red shirt that had the phrase 'Bite Me' written in curvy black script on it, black skinny jeans that had a studded belt; the studs being metallic and the color of deep blood; in it's loopholes. He had the ghost of a ghost of a smirk on his face; one might even say he wasn't even amused in the slightest, but Naruto saw the glint of amusement in his eyes.

The red-head had on 'Vans' that were white in color, but had black skulls on the sides of them. In his hand was a skateboard that looked like it had seen many a staircase railing. He was the youngest one in the small group, that much Naruto could tell. He was probably around his own age.

The second had chocolate colored hair in the same form as the red-heads but his was hidden under a black hat, only showing through the sides, and had all black clothing on consisting of black skinny jeans, a black jacket with 'hurley' written across the front of it- oh wait, there was a purple colored shirt underneath said jacket that stuck out at the bottom only slightly.

On his feet were black converse that were patched together with lime green and hot pink colored duct tape. He also carried a skateboard, but his was covered in the same two colors of duct tape as his shoes. He had a smirk on his face at whatever joke had been made. This person, was not as old as the girl, but not as young as the red-head, so he was probably a year older then Naruto.

The final person that came in was the same age as Naruto. Black hair that had a deep blue tint to it, that was spiked up in the back; reminding Naruto of a duck's ass; and deep gray eyes that seemed almost black in color were the main features of his face. He had a single stud in his left ear that was a single black gem, he wore a deep blue hoodie that had a small; red on the top, white on the bottom; fan in the bottom left hand corner of it and baggy navy blue cargo pants that had two chains extending from the pockets down to another set of pockets on each leg.

Upon his feet were a pair of DC shoes colored black with the signature logo in red on the side with pixelated red dots in a mass at the back of the shoe that slowly diminished as it got closer to the toe. Upon his face was a large smirk and in his hand a skateboard that was covered in the small red and white fans.

Naruto turned away from the group and began thinking of how his new school would be, when he was interrupted.

"Hey, creamsicle!" a voice called. "You from around here?"

Naruto turned his gaze back to the group that entered the small building and raised a brow, looking unaffected by the 'creamsicle' comment.

The group was looking at the raven haired boy, as though they were expecting something more vile to come out of his mouth then the petty insult.

"Why do you want to know?" Naruto replied, sticking his hands in the pockets of his shorts.

The raven moved toward him and Naruto stood his ground, not moving an inch away from him, but standing taller and getting up close to the raven.

The raven smirked. "Well now...It seems that we have some fresh meat to deal with." At that, Naruto found his hands locked together by a cold hand as they were twisted ruthlessly behind his back and he then noticed that the color of the walls were actually a light cream color, not white.

"HEY!" a loud voice called. "Let go of him!"

If Naruto was able to turn his head toward the source of the voice, he would've seen three people; all of whom were very different looking from the others standing by them.

"Why should I, Palmer?" the teen holding Naruto to the wall asked with a sneer.

A girl stepped forward and glared at the teen. She had dirty blond hair that was hanging down to her shoulders, a black hat upon her head that was slightly poofy, was dressed in a black baby-doll tee that had the kanji for seme written upon it in dark gray, a simple silver studded belt in the loopholes of a pair of 'Love Me'* uniform pink jeans. Clad upon her feet were simple brown strap sandals that looked very comfy. The most catching thing about her were her eyes. Unlike her (partially) dark attire, her eyes were the color of newly budding leaves.

"Do you really want me to answer that question?" she snarled.

"Hey now..." said a skinny boy from behind 'Palmer'. "No need to get into another brawl, Larka. Remember the one you had last time?"

His hair was up in a spiky pony, gray eyes had a bored look in them as he watched the scene before him. He had a light gray t-shirt on that went down, only slightly, passed the top of baggy blue jeans. He wore some unknown brand of tennis shoes that were white, but a bit scuffed up.

'Larka', as she was now named, turned back to the skinny boy. "But, Shikamaru-" her protest was cut off by the person standing next to Shikamaru.

"C'mon Larka." he said with a kind smile. "We know that you're only doing this because you want revenge on Sasuke after what he did to you last year."

He was heavyset person, with red hair that was more of a burnt sienna then orange and dark brown eyes. He wore a baggy green jacket that looked worn, as though he'd had it for a year at least, blue jeans that also looked worn and finally a pair of dark blue sandals that were patched with silver duct tape.

Larka looked around the building suspiciously. "I dont know what you're talking about, Choji." she muttered and turned back toward Sasuke. "Now, how about you let go of him before I kick your ass."

Naruto took his chance when the girl grabbed onto Sasuke's shoulder and pulled him partially off of him.

Pulling his hands in opposite directions, he jumped away from the teen who'd had him pinned up against the wall.

"Naruto!" Tsunade yelled. "What's going on here?" she came over to where the commotion was

The small group of people that had included Sasuke immediately ran out the door upon hearing her voice, while the two boys were restraining Larka from going after them.

"Oh! Hi, Ms. Tsunade!" Larka said as she removed herself from her two friend's grip. "There's nothing going on, but Sasuke was just roughing up..." she paused. "What's your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto replied with a small smile.

Larka then proceeded to explain to Tsunade what had happened.

_'This is one weird town...'_ Naruto thought as he listened to Larka talk.

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***If you have ever read (and or watched) Skip! Beat, you understand what I'm talking about. To those of you who have not read this wonderful manga, the color of this uniform is the brightest pink that you have ever seen in your life. Once you look at it, you are forced to stare until one of two things occur: 1, the person wearing said uniform is out of eyesight, or 2, you go blind. It's brighter then neon; it's like neon on steroids with the steroids on crack!**

**OK! so that's all I've got so far! Tell me what you think!  
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I will now be updating this story every Friday, so to those of you who like it, be prepared!


	3. Special Request

**Saph: Alright, all of those who have been reading this story! I've obviously neglected this story, and for that I apologize. I wanted to get _M.o.E._ finished before I focused on _Unfamiliar Territory_ and I lost a lot of the motivation for it. So! I have a special request for all of you who are creative, or just want something added into the story later on, or early on. Since I've got little drive for this story, I need requests for things that you, the readers, would like to see. I've got the ending I want all plotted out in my head, the only part I need help with is getting there.**

**Saph: So, if you've got something that you would like seen in this story, just review this chapter and tell me from there, or take a little bit more time out of your day and send me a message. And if nobody really gives any ideas, then this story will probably be put on permanent hiatus; unless someone wants to adopt it, if that situation occurs.**

**Naruto: you just had to get bored with me in this one didn't you!**

**Saph: well, I was playing Kingdom Hearts 2 and then I discovered the pairings and the stories-**

**Itachi: so you basically abandoned us for them.**

**Saph: No!**

**Demyx: -walks in with Axel and Roxas- hey Saph, are we still on for ice cream tomorrow?**

**Saph: Yup!**

**Naruto: you did so abandon us!**

**Saph:...okay so I did, but how can you not love this guy? -hugs Demyx-**

**Demyx: not that I don't like hugs, but why are you hugging me?**

**Saph: because you're just that awesome.**

**Demyx: Works for me!**


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